Category: Cowboys (Page 37 of 54)

More Than Enough

August 24, 2009 / Allan / 1 Comment

Faith is living in the knowledge and confidence that our God is always going to give us everything we need in order to live. But it’s also knowing that the truly important things — the eternal things, the things that really matter — he gives us in abundance. We have more of those things than we know what to do with.

In his letter to the church in Ephesus, Paul uses hyperbole to describe these great spiritual gifts. In fact, the actual greek word he uses over and over is pronounced “hyperballo.“ It’s translated into the English words “incomparably,” “immeasurable,” and “surpassing.” It’s extravagant! It’s over the top! It demands exclamation points!

Ephesians 1:19 – “his incomparably (hyperballo) great power for us who believe” Overflowing power! Overwhelming power! More than enough divine Holy Spirit power within me to annihilate sin and death and Satan and everything that works so hard to separate me from God!

Ephesians 2:7 – “the incomparable (hyperballo) riches of his grace” Through the kindness of Christ Jesus! Buckets of grace! Grace in spades! More than plenty of grace to be saved and to join God in doing good works!

Ephesians 3:19 – “love that surpasses (hyperballo) knowledge” Incomprehensible love! Love that cannot be fathomed! Heavenly love up to here! God’s love coming out my ears! A surplus of love that fills me to the measure of all the fullness of God himself!

God’s love! Christ’s grace! The Holy Spirit’s power! Lavished on us! More than we need! Why? Why does God give us so much?

“To the praise of his glory” ~Ephesians 1:14

“To do good works which God prepared in advance for us to do.” ~Ephesians 2:10

“Glory in the Church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.” ~Ephesians 3:21

Some of us are having to pinch pennies right now. Some of us are having to pinch half-pennies. Economically, some of us are struggling right now. What a blessing to realize that the eternal things, the things that will not fade, the rich blessings of divine power and grace and love are piled so high on top of us by our God, that inspired writers don’t quite know how to say it.

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The three girls started back to school today. Whitney’s a sophomore at the all-new-and-improved Richland High School here in North Richland Hills. We attended the ribbon cutting and open house yesterday afternoon and were blown away by how nice the place is. It almost looks like Mark Cuban built the place with huge HDTV screens placed about every 20-feet throughout the campus. It’s now, by far, the high school with the nicest facilities in the district. Not sure if that’ll add up to another football win over Birdville this year. Valerie’s a 7th grader at Northridge. And Carley’s in the 4th grade now at Green Valley. Three girls at three different schools. Yeah, it takes 30-minutes taking them in the mornings and almost a full hour to pick them up in the afternoons. Carrie-Anne starts her second year at TWU next week.

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20 days now until the Cowboys begin their 50th NFL season. And we’re counting them down with the Red Ribbon Review, a look at the second-best players in Cowboys history according to jersey number. #20 on our list is running back Ron Springs. You already know the moving story of Springs’ Type 2 Diabetes and how former teammate Everson Walls donated one of his kidneys to Springs three years ago. But do you also remember that he was a pretty good football player, too?

Springs was drafted in the 5th round out of Ohio State in 1979, mainly to back up Tony Dorsett. In that rookie season he was fifth in the NFL with an average of 9.8 yards per touch. And the Cowboys were forced to think up other ways to get him the ball. So Springs lined up at fullback. He lined up as a wingback. As a tight end. In motion of the backfield and then in the flats for a pass. He was big enough to stay in and block blitzing linebackers on third-and-long and quick enough to run a draw play up the gut for 12 yards and a first down. In his six seasons in Dallas, Springs racked up 2,180 yards rushing, 2,028 yards receiving, and a total of 38 TDs. He played in 3 NFC Championship Games.

The image, though, that’s stuck in my mind is of Roger Staubach joyfully leaping in Springs’ arms after throwing a fade route for a touchdown to Tony Hill in the back-right corner of the end zone at Texas Stadium to complete a 35-34 come-from-behind win over the Redskins that simultaneously clinched the division title for Dallas and knocked Washington out of the playoffs. Dallas actually overcame two separate 17-point deficits that day in a win that turned out to be Staubach’s last ever victory. I love the picture.

Catching up from yesterday, #21 in the Red Ribbon Review is probably a backup running back you’ve never heard of. Doug Dennison was an undrafted free agent out of Kutztown State in Pennsylvania. (I couldn’t make that up.) He made the team in 1974 and only carried the ball 16 times that rookie season. But four of those runs resulted in touchdowns. He had a nose for the end zone. So he was able to hang on until his big break in ’76 when he filled in for an injured Preston Pearson. Dennison led the team with 542 yards that season. He scored a team-leading seven touchdowns the next year. But in ’77 the Cowboys drafted Tony Dorsett and that pretty much ended Dennison’s career in Dallas. Dennison only got a total of 26 carries in ’77 and ’78 and was traded to Cleveland before the ’79 season.

Peace,

Allan

To The Preachers

August 21, 2009 / Allan / 0 Comments

Actually reading Thomas Campbell’s Declaration and Address, which he started writing 200 years ago this week, is eye-opening to someone who’s only familiar with the superficial “Bible-only” and “Christians-only” bumper sticker slogans we’ve harvested from our movement’s founding document. This work is a passionate plea for Christian unity as described in our Scriptures and prayed for by our Savior. It so clearly outlines the breaking down of denominational barriers and the demolition of anything that would keep us from calling one another brother and sister and communing with each other around our Lord’s table as our God’s holy and perfect will. And it calls on each and every member of the Lord’s Body to work diligently toward that end. The Declaration and Address is saturated with the question, why pray for something if you’re not going to work to make it happen?

Good question.

But Campbell especially appeals to preachers as the ones who must step forward to carry Christ’s mission of unity for his Church.

“Is it not then your incumbent duty to endeavour, by all scriptural means, to have those evils (divisions) remedied. Who will say that it is not? Does it not peculiarly belong to you, who occupy the place of gospel ministers, to be leaders in this laudable undertaking. Much depends upon your hearty concurrence and zealous endeavours. The favorable opportunity which Divine Providence has put into your hands, in this happy country, for the accomplishment of so great a good is, in itself, a consideration of no small encouragement.”

(Of course, much more was expected of preachers back then than is now. At the end of the Declaration portion of the document, in article VIII, Campbell makes it clear that “each meeting of the society be opened with a sermon.” Can you imagine? What if the elders of your church insisted that every elders meeting start with a sermon?)

Campbell calls on preachers to do the will of Jesus

“…whose express command to his people is, that there be no divisions among them; but that they all walk by the same rule, speak the same thing, and be perfectly joined together in the same mind, and in the same judgment. Let us attempt it. Are we not all praying for that happy event, when there shall be but one fold, as there is but one chief shepherd. What! Shall we pray for a thing and not strive to obtain it! Not use the necessary means to have it accomplished!!

Let the ministers of Jesus but embrace this exhortation, put their hand to the work, and encourage the people to go forward upon the firm ground of obvious truth, to unite in the bonds of an entire christian unity.”

Usually it’s the obvious truths that get us all in trouble.

That’s why Campbell’s encouragement is so needed. And that’s why he and Stone and the rest of the leaders of our Restoration movement are such heroes.

May we work hard to uphold the ideals of those who’ve gone before us as they reflect the perfect will of our Father in heaven. May God bless us with boldness and courage and power from his Holy Spirit to lead his people in the paths of greater unity for the salvation of the world!

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23 days until the Cowboys open up their regular season against the Bucs in Tampa Bay. And we’re counting down the days by honoring the second-best players in team history according to jersey number. #23 in our Red Ribbon Review is backup cornerback Robert Williams. As an undrafted free agent out of Baylor in 1987, Williams played on some of the worst teams in Cowboys history. But he hung on long enough to collect two Super Bowl rings in 1992 and 1993. He carries the distinction of having scored two TDs in a Cowboys uniform, both of them on blocked punt returns.

Tomorrow’s #22 is a no-brainer. He’s a Hall of Famer, a Ring of Honor member, an olympic gold medalist, and he holds 22 Cowboys team records. Hard to believe he’s still only the second-best player to wear #22. Bullet Bob Hayes was taken in the seventh round of the 1964 draft out of Florida A&M and wound up changing the game of professional football. Known as the fastest man in the world after breaking four records at the 1964 Olympics, Hayes blew right by everybody who tried to cover him on the football field. So defenses were forced to try brand new things. Like zone coverage. Unheard of.

It barely mattered.

Hayes played ten seasons in Dallas and finished his career with an astonishing 20.0 yards per catch average. He averaged over 18 yards per catch in seven of his ten years, including league-leading averages of 26.1 yards in 1970 and 24.0 yards in 1971. He finished in the NFL’s top six in yards receiving five times and was named to three Pro Bowls and twice as a first-team All Pro. Hayes racked up 7,295 yards on 365 catches with the Cowboys and 71 touchdowns. And he’s the only man to have ever won an Olympic gold medal AND a Super Bowl ring.

None of this information came from Lucille Hester. And I’ve got a letter from Bob to prove it.

Peace,

Allan

In Christ Jesus

August 20, 2009 / Allan / 0 Comments

“You are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God — that is, our righteousness, holiness, and redemption.” ~1 Corinthians 1:30

All the doctrine of the Bible is made personal is Jesus. God’s wisdom is Jesus. Our righteousness is Jesus. Our holiness is Jesus. Our redemption is Jesus. Our resurrection is made personal and real in Jesus. Everything we need, and indeed have, for salvation and a right relationship with God is in Jesus.

When you’re down two scores in the fourth quarter you need a Pro Bowl quarterback, not a good playbook. When you’re being sued you need a good lawyer, not a comprehensive law encyclopedia. When you’re sick you need a good doctor, not a user-friendly medical website. And when you’re facing your greatest enemies — sin, death, Satan — you need the Savior of the World!

God’s wisdom and righteousness and holiness and redemption are gifts to you from him. They are benefits, yes. But they’re more than that. They are actually aspects of a relationship with Jesus. It is him in you. For all of us who were baptized into Christ have clothed ourselves with Christ.

When you belong to Christ Jesus you have all you’ll ever need in life and death, in time and space, and for eternity.

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A look back at Thomas Campbell’s Declaration and Address which he began writing in August 1809, 200 years ago this week inspires the reader to carefully and prayerfully consider our Lord’s call to Christian unity. Scripture’s picture of unity. Our God’s will for unity.

The opening lines — one sentence with tons of commas — goes like this:

“That it is the grand design, and native tendency, of our holy religion, to reconcile and unite men to God, and to each other, in truth and love, to the glory of God, and their own present and eternal good, will not, we presume, be denied, by any of the genuine subjects of christianity.”

The whole thing is a call to unity. Reconciliation. The kind of reconciliation Paul writes about in 2 Corinthians 5. Reconciliation between God and man. Between man and man. The kind of reconciliation that drives God’s eternal plans. The very ministry he’s given those of us who’ve professed our faith in him and put his Holy Son on in baptism. Campbell’s words in this document are bold. Aggressive. And they ring with beautiful and undeniable truth. The Declaration and Address, the charter document of our Churches of Christ, calls for a swift end to all divisions among those who claim to be followers of Jesus.

“Has the Captain of Salvation sounded a desist from pursuing, or proclaimed a truce with, this deadly enemy that is sheathing its sword in the very bowels of the church, rending and mangling his mystical body into pieces. Has he said to his servants, let it alone? If not, where is the warrant for a cessation of endeavors to have it removed?”

Campbell claims that tearing down the walls and uniting again with our brothers and sisters in Christ is a “matter of universal right, a duty belonging to every citizen of Zion, to seek her good.” And while the work will be difficult and the opposition will come mainly from within the church establishment, Campbell says it is God’s will. It is the Church’s will. It is the will of those who’ve gone before us. And our efforts will be divinely rewarded.

“…both the mighty and the many are with us. The Lord himself, and all that are truly his people, are declaredly on our side. The prayers of all the churches, nay, the prayers of Christ himself, John 17:20-23, and of all that have ascended to his heavenly kingdom, are with us.”

I thank God for the Campbells and the Stones and other giants of the faith who latched onto God’s holy will as revealed to us in Scripture and. would. not. let. it. go. They lived to obey God rather than man. They swore to use only the Bible as their guide. And they vowed that, despite the opposition, they would remain loyal to their King and his Kingdom. We owe them a tremendous debt of gratitude. We owe them the effort to carry on the difficult work they started 200 years ago.

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24 days until the Dallas Cowboys kick off their historic 50th NFL football season. 24 days from now they’ll be battling the Bucs down in Tampa. And we’re counting down the days with the Red Ribbon Review, a look at the second-best players in Cowboys history, according to jersey number. (This countdown becomes much more important with every Rangers loss. If they lose tonight, I’m blaming it on Lewin’s “1999-ish” comments on Tuesday.)

The second-best ever #24 in Cowboys history is a Super Bowl MVP, cornerback Larry Brown. The Cowboys stole him with a 12th round pick in 1991 and got a starting right corner for five straight seasons, three of them Super Bowl championship seasons. Brown is best known for picking off two Neil O’Donnell passes in the second half of Super Bowl XXX which led directly to the points the Cowboys needed to win their third title in four years. Yes, the balls hit Brown right in the chest. Yes, it looked like one of them would have to be surgically removed after the game, O’Donnell threw them right at him so hard. But a lot of people forget what a great ’95 season Brown had leading up to that game.

The former TCU star collected six picks that season, racked up 124 return yards, and ran two of them back for TDs. All of this just a few months following the tragic death of his young son. It was a great story that year. But most people have already forgotten.

Brown used his three rings and his MVP trophy to cash a huge paycheck in Oakland with the Raiders. That only lasted two years. He came back to Dallas in ’98 and played just parts of four games for the Cowboys before hanging it up for good. He finished his Cowboys career with 13 total picks and 279 total tackles. He played in 13 playoff games, four NFC Championship Games, and three Super Bowls as a Cowboy. And he’s the second-best #24 in Cowboys history.

Peace,

Allan

Wanted: Four Legacy Teens

August 19, 2009 / Allan / 16 Comments

Authorities are seeking four young people today in connection to their suspected role in suspicious activity reported early this morning by the preacher at the Legacy Church of Christ. Sometime between 12:00 midnight and 12:40 am, certain suspects transported and unloaded a full set of living room furniture onto the front lawn of the North Richland Hills home belonging to Allan Stanglin. The items, orderly arranged on the lawn in meticulous fashion, included a love seat and cushions, a swivel arm-chair and pillows, a decorative floor rug, a wicker book shelf, a coffee table, and a color television. The perpetrators also hung a chandelier from one of the trees.

The suspects are:

Payton Giacomarro, Landon Brightwell, Jenna Brightwell, and Bethany Fleming.

At least one and possibly two or three other adults, who are all much older and should know better, are also sought for questioning as persons of interest in this case.

All four of the named suspects have been involved in the planning and executing of various and sundry other crimes against Stanglin, including, but not limited to, the placing of dozens of live gold fish in the back of Stanglin’s truck, the scattering of hundreds of glow sticks in his front yard, and the overnight hurling of raw biscuit dough at the windows of his vehicle. All four of the area teens are still at-large and are to be considered armed with cameras and dangerous. They are believed to be driving a large red pickup truck and some type of white vehicle. Descriptions of the get-away cars are vague as Stanglin and his wife, Carrie-Anne, remained in a fuzzy haze of semi-consciousness for two or three minutes after being awakened by the flash bulbs at about 12:40am.

The cold-blooded nature of these criminals is legendary. In fact, two of the suspects, Fleming and J. Brightwell, are believed to have already crossed state lines into Arkansas this morning, leaving the other two members of their gang to fend for themselves against authorities. They are planning to begin a new life together there, undoubtedly a life that will include the recruiting of new subjects to join the gang in the terrorizing of innocent ministers and church staff. A Bible professor at Harding University has already agreed to extradite the pair should they be located in Searcy.

If you have any information as to the whereabouts of these suspects, please contact Mr. Stanglin. If any of the furniture looks like it may belong to you, please get it out of the front yard yourself. After 12:00 noon today, the owners will have to purchase the furniture from the Goodwill store at Rufe Snow and Hightower.

Authorities are considering charges of suspicious activity, disturbing the peace, reckless endangerment of grass and antbeds, and carousing.

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25 days until the Cowboys kick off their NFL season against the Bucs. And the second-best #25 to ever play for Dallas is — you’re not going to believe this — defensive back Scott Case. I know. I know. Case played eleven of his 12 seasons in Atlanta before Dallas signed him as a backup on their 1995 Super Bowl team. He only recorded 14 total tackles in his only year with the Cowboys. But he brought decent credentials with him: 30 career interceptions, a 1988 Pro Bowl, and all kinds of honors from OU.

Give me a break. It was either Case or two colossal draft busts. There’s no way I could put Rod Hill or Derrick Lassic on this list.

Peace,

Allan

Wanted: Four Legacy Teens

August 19, 2009 / Allan / 16 Comments

The suspects are:

Payton Giacomarro, Landon Brightwell, Jenna Brightwell, and Bethany Fleming.

At least one and possibly two or three other adults, who are all much older and should know better, are also sought for questioning as persons of interest in this case.

Authorities are considering charges of suspicious activity, disturbing the peace, reckless endangerment of grass and antbeds, and carousing.

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Give me a break. It was either Case or two colossal draft busts. There’s no way I could put Rod Hill or Derrick Lassic on this list.

Peace,

Allan

Act Like It!

August 18, 2009 / Allan / 0 Comments

“Act like you love each other!”

I find myself saying that to our daughters anytime I witness them bickering or acting selfishly or speaking to one another in tones that are less than lovely. “Act like you love each other!” I think I may have picked that up from my own parents somewhere along the line.

Treat her with respect. Act kindly toward him. Think of his needs. Consider her feelings. Do something nice. Compliment him. Help her.

Act like you love each other.

Why does our God tell us the exact same thing? Will acting like we love each other actually cause us to, over time, really like each other? How does that work?

Christian love is not an emotion, it’s a matter of the will. It has nothing to do with feelings; it has everything to do with attitude. It’s not a sentiment or a sensation; it’s mindset, a worldview.

In his book, Mere Christianity, C. S. Lewis says, “Do not waste time bothering whether you ‘love’ your neighbor; act as if you did.” Lewis claims that behaving as if we liked each other, even if we don’t, is really one of the great secrets of the universe. “When you are behaving as if you loved someone, you will presently come to love him. If you injure someone you dislike, you will find yourself disliking him more. If you do him a good turn, you will find yourself disliking him less.”

By trying to treat everyone kindly, whether we like them or not, Lewis writes that a Christian will find himself liking more and more as he goes along, including people he could never have imagined liking at the beginning.

Same thing with loving God. You don’t have to read the judges or the prophets very carefully before you realize they obeyed God, they did what would please God, even in times when they didn’t necessarily feel very close to God. Even when they disagreed with God, even when they felt God was being unfair, God’s people behaved as if they loved God. They obeyed God even when they weren’t sure they even liked God.

More Lewis:

“Nobody can always have devout feelings, and even if we could, feelings are not what God principally cares about. Christian Love, either towards God or towards man, is an affair of the will. If we are trying to do his will we are obeying the commandment, ‘Thou shalt love the Lord thy God.’ He will give us feelings of love if he pleases.

The great thing to remember is that, though our feelings come and go, his love for us does not. It is not wearied by our sins, or our indifference; and, therefore, it is quite relentless in its determination that we shall be cured of those sins, at whatever cost to us, at whatever cost to him.”

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Yes, I know. Reading Thomas Campbell’s Declaration and Address is tough sledding. It’s not easy. It’s a little more difficult than reading the King James Version. But I encourage you to plod through it. The payoff is huge. Read it, knowing that the fires for restoring the biblical unity to Christ’s Church that burned within them is the same passion that birthed our stream of the Christian faith. It’s our heritage. Let it excite you. Let it make you proud to be a part of such a noble and Godly cause, even if we have, in many respects, lost our way.

For those of you needing some help, here’s a link to a modern rendering — a translation? — of the 13 Propositions of the Declaration and Address. Doug Foster, professor of church history and the director for the Center of Restoration Studies at ACU wrote them. I think it captures the heart of the ideas pretty well. Check it out by clicking here.

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There are 26 days left until the Cowboys kick off their 2009 NFL season down in Tampa Bay against the Bucs. And our Red Ribbon Review counts down the days with a look at the second-bests, the also-rans, the runners-up. These are the second-best players in Cowboys history according to jersey number. And today’s #26 is the very first ever “third-down back,” Preston Pearson.

Pearson spent the last six years of his 14-year NFL career in Dallas where Tom Landry had devised a scheme specifically for him. On obvious passing downs — third down and second-and-long — Pearson lined up mostly as a running back with Roger Staubach in the Shotgun formation. Pearson could then stay in and block blitzers, allowing Staubach time to find a deep receiver, or release out into the flat or find a spot in the middle under the coverage and take the pass himself. His success as a clutch receiver also served to open up the draw play for Pearson. He made his living and his name and solidified his legacy as the Cowboys’ third-down specialist.

Pearson never played football in college. He was a basketball player at Illinois when the Colts took a chance on him in the 12th round of the 1967 draft and turned him into a running back. Three years in Baltimore, five years in Pittsburgh, and six in Dallas proved to be perfect timing for Pearson. He was charmed, for sure. Pearson is the only player in NFL history to have played in Super Bowls with the Colts, Steelers, and Cowboys; to have played for Hall of Fame coaches Don Shula, Chuck Noll, and Tom Landry; to have been quarterbacked by Hall of Famers Johnny Unitas, Terry Bradshaw, and Roger Staubach; and to have lined up beside Hall of Fame running backs Lenny Moore, Franco Harris, and Tony Dorsett. Incredible.

His six years in Dallas produced 1,207 yards rushing, 2,274 yards receiving, and 16 touchdowns — almost all of it on third downs. The best year of his career was his first as a Cowboy when he racked up 509 yards rushing, 351 yards receiving, and another 391 yards on kickoff returns. That was the Dirty Dozen year when Pearson, in two playoff games, ran for over 200 yards and three scores and helped lead the Cowboys to Super Bowl X.

He was never a regular starter. But Preston Pearson is the second-best Cowboy to ever wear #26.

Peace,

Allan

Category: Cowboys (Page 37 of 54)

More Than Enough

To The Preachers

In Christ Jesus

Wanted: Four Legacy Teens

Wanted: Four Legacy Teens

Act Like It!

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